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Student Reflections

Transportation quirks abroad

Paige Watterson
May 23, 2017

We’ve been here for a full week now, and still constantly discovering new things. Over the weekend, we went to Boca Chica, a really nice beach. Afterwards, we went to an excellent, well-priced falafel restaurant in Santo Domingo.

In our travels, we have not really seen much public transportation. They are working on a subway system in another area of Santo Domingo, but the public transportation in the Colonial Zone, where we are staying, is not very robust. There are always a bunch of guys at street corners and in popular touristy areas asking if we need a taxi, but those are expensive and not always guaranteed to be safe. Our CIEE coordinator told us that if we really needed a taxi, we should call a taxi service so we know it is reliable and safe. For the most part, everything is very walkable, so we don’t need public transportation.

Boca Chica was about half an hour to 45 minutes away, so to get there, we took an Uber. It was very well-priced and did not take long for the Uber to arrive because it is popular in Santo Domingo. On the way back, however, we struggled getting an Uber. We had to order an Uber XL because there were so many of us, but it was 30 minutes away, so we had to split up and order two regular Ubers. Those two Ubers still took a while to arrive and were more expensive. This makes sense because Uber in the more rural area near Boca Chica is probably not as popular or as necessary as in Santo Domingo, which is a somewhat touristy city.

Ice Cream on the beach

So, overall, public transportation is not really an option in the area I am staying in, but it is also not that necessary. Uber is a perfectly viable option.

Thankfully, our class is held in a hotel just a two minute walk away from the hotel we are staying at, so it is extremely easy to get there. It is very nice because I enjoy going back to my hotel room between classes and relaxing in my air conditioned room.